Why call it 'life support'?

Women are placed under absurd expectations to accomplish the impossible and to make it look easy. Feeling undervalued at work and overstretched at home, many women are under an unrelenting pressure that can have serious consequences for both physical and mental health. Women are also disproportionally tasked with 'emotional labor' in relationships, and told daily that it is more important to meet other people's needs than their own.

Play is a deep and powerful form of self-care, providing joy through:

Creative inspiration and absorption

Intellectual challenge

Physical expression

When we play, we also grow more resilient and more able to face life's ups and downs with a sense of humor.

Getting back in touch with our individual, authentic play can feel scary. This course helps you move through that process, at a pace you feel comfortable with.

Is it only for women in non-profits?

No. Play is for everyone!

However, women do face particular barriers to play which can be exacerbated by working in a 'caring' profession such as teaching or nursing. In both clear and subtle ways, women are expected to put the needs of others above their own. Societal messaging tells us that play is unimportant or frivolous, and that creative expression is only for 'the gifted few'.

If you are looking to address your own internalized barriers and start playing again, then this course is for you.

We long for its heights, which some people often visit and others must learn to find, but everyone experiences as replenishing. Opportunities for deep play abound. In its thrall we become ideal versions of ourselves… [Its] many moods and varieties help to define who we are and all we wish to be.

— Diane Ackerman

What others say about me:

"You have given us so much in so little time, words cannot express the treasure you have been: in time, talent and shining spirit and positivity!"

Erin Marteal

Director of Ithaca Children's Garden

"Many thanks for a transformative learning experience. I hope to be a multiplier for the ideas and perspectives I gained in the sessions with you. Best of luck, as you continue to change the world for children and their adults!"

Lyndall Miller

Director, Jewish Early Childhood Education Leadership Institute

What does this course include?

This course is growing all the time, and you'll have lifetime access to enjoy all the updates as they arrive. So far, it includes:

A 16-page e-book with reflective questions and 3 original play prompts

8 modules, each unpacking a key barrier to play (for example: the fear of getting it wrong)

Personal stories and testimonials about play in adult life

Inspiring 'assignments' to nudge you into having more fun, right away!

How is it unique?

Since 2007, I've been professionally supporting self-directed, open-ended play in schools, parks and even hospitals. I've traveled to a dozen countries, and written course materials to provide playwork training to students around the world. Heck, I'm even working towards my PhD in Playwork under Dr. Fraser Brown.

In those years I've also been a total hypocrite, advocating for play in the days of everyone but myself. It's felt impossible to balance family commitments with work, and I've dealt with depression. 7 Days of Play grew from my attempts to apply professional know-how to my own life, and a recognition that play deprivation has serious consequences.

Identifying and moving past our fears is a vulnerable, transformative process, with immediate and astonishing benefits.

You can experience them too.

Morgan Leichter-Saxby, MA has supported play for children and adults around the world. Since 2007, she has studied and practiced Playwork, a professional approach which is fundamentally nonjudgmental, empathetic, and reflective. Playwork has a nuanced vocabulary for questions of process, liminality and risk, which can be usefully applied to humans of all ages.